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Language has been one of the most effective ways of human communication and information exchange. To solve the problem of non-contact robust speech recognition, recovery, and surveillance, this paper presents a speech recovery technology based on a 24 GHz portable auditory radar and webcam. The continuous-wave auditory radar is utilized to extract the vocal vibration signal, and the webcam is used to obtain the fitted formant frequency. The traditional formant speech synthesizer is selected to synthesize and recover speech, using the vocal vibration signal as the sound source excitation and the fitted formant frequency as the vocal tract resonance characteristics. Experiments on reading single English characters and words are carried out. Using microphone records as a reference, the effectiveness of the proposed speech recovery technology is verified. Mean opinion scores show a relatively high consistency between the synthesized speech and original acoustic speech.

Background/Aims: The purpose of the present study was to clarify whether chronically elevated plasma neuropeptide Y (NPY) might affect heart function and cardiac remodeling in rats. Methods: Male Wistar rats were administered NPY (85 μg for 30 days) by mini-osmotic pump subcutaneously implanted between the scapulae. Associated indices for heart function, cardiac remodeling and hypertrophy were evaluated. Results: Compared to the sham group, the baseline systolic blood pressure (SBP) in rats administered NPY was significantly increased; cardiac function was significantly decreased, as indicated by reduced ejection fraction (EF), left ventricular end-systolic pressure (LVESP), maximum change velocity of left ventricular pressure in the isovolumic contraction or relaxation period (±dp/dtmax) and increased left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP); hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) staining detection displayed enlarged cell areas and a consistent increase in heart-to-body weight ratios (HW/BW) was observed; quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR) and Western blot analysis showed markedly increased expressions of β-myosin heavy chain (β-MHC), calcineurin (CaN) and phosphorylated p38 proteins, while no changes were found in the expressions of p38 total protein and the phosphorylations of JNK and ERK. Conclusion: This study reported for the first time that long-term elevated plasma concentration of NPY could induce cardiac dysfunction and cardiac hypertrophy and this phenomenon could, in part, be mediated by the Ca2+/CaM-dependent CaN pathway and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signal pathway in rats.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease. Here, we show that phospholipase C-β3 (PLC-β3)-deficient mice spontaneously develop AD-like skin lesions and more severe allergen-induced dermatitis than wild-type mice. Mast cells were required for both AD models and remarkably increased in the skin of Plcb3−/− mice because of the increased Stat5 and reduced SHP-1 activities. Mast cell-specific deletion of Stat5 gene ameliorated allergen-induced dermatitis, whereas that of Shp1 gene encoding Stat5-inactivating SHP-1 exacerbated it. PLC-β3 regulates the expression of periostin in fibroblasts and TSLP in keratinocytes, two proteins critically involved in AD pathogenesis. Furthermore, polymorphisms in PLCB3, SHP1, STAT5A, and STAT5B genes were associated with human AD. Mast cell expression of PLC-β3 was inversely correlated with that of phospho-STAT5, and increased mast cells with high levels of phospho-STAT5 were found in lesional skin of some AD patients. Therefore, STAT5 regulatory mechanisms in mast cells are important for AD pathogenesis.

Clutters caused by multipath have been widely researched in through-the-wall radar imaging (TWRI). The existing research work of multipath only consider reflections from the wall, while in the condition of a small scene, with the increasing number of targets, multipath from targets to targets, named interaction multipath, usually generates ghosts, which degrades the performance of TWRI. In order to mitigate the effect of interaction multipath, considering fast data acquisition and measurement reduction, we made use of the propagation characteristic of interaction multipath to build the sparse model of the target scene and developed a compressive sensing (CS)-based method, which is referred to as ‘interaction CS’. For the number of point targets increasing from 5–8, intensive evaluation and direct comparison of the imaging results with existing methods are conducted to show that the proposed interaction CS performs better at ghost suppression in the same condition of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).

A generalized oblique projection (GOP) with an adjustable parameter defined as interference suppression cost (ISC) is proposed. Therefore, an optional optimized signal to interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) and user controlled actions on the interference filtering are presented in this GOP framework. Theoretical analysis and numerical simulation demonstrate that when the ISC is derived from minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) algorithm, the SINR performance of GOP filter is better than both MVDR and oblique projection (OP) filters. Further, an application of GOP filter in ionospheric clutter cancellation in a high frequency surface wave radar (HFSWR) system is given. The ISC is designed specifically to introduce an extra coherent loss to the clutters and a satisfying clutter suppression result is achieved. Besides the examples given, more designs of GOP filter can be inspired by the flexibility of ISC. As a generalized form of OP filter, GOP filter expands the connotation of oblique projection based technique and could be used in spatial filtering, polarization filtering, and other array signal processing applications.

Oblique projection polarization filter (OPPF) can be applied as an effective approach for interference cancellation in high-frequency surface wave radar (HFSWR) and other systems. In order to suppress the nonstationary ionosphere clutter further, a novel OPPF based clutter suppressing scheme is proposed in this paper. The polarization and nonstationary characteristic of the clutter are taken into account in the algorithms referred to as range-Doppler domain polarization suppression (RDDPS) and the range-time domain polarization suppression (RTDPS) method, respectively. The RDDPS is designed for weak ionosphere clutter and implemented in the range-Doppler domain directly, whereas the RTDPS algorithm is designed to suppress the powerful ionosphere clutter with a multisegment estimation and suppression scheme. About 15–23 dB signal to interference ratio (SIR) improvement can be excepted when using the proposed method, whereas the targets can be more easily detected in the range-Doppler map. Experimental results demonstrate that the scheme proposed is effective for nonstationary ionosphere clutter and is proven to be a practical interference cancellation technique for HFSWR.

Circulating immature platelet fraction (IPF) reflects real-time thrombopoiesis and correlates with platelet recovery from thrombocytopenic presentations. To understand the dynamics of IPF in platelet transfusions, we quantified the %-IPF in single-donor platelet components (SDP) during prolonged storage. %-IPF significantly increased from baseline by day 5 post-donation. Absolute IPF counts (A-IPC) had similar significant increments. However, gamma-irradiation suppressed the increments of %-IPF and A-IPC by >50%. Ultrastructural analysis of SDP units at day 10 showed well preserved morphology of immature platelets. Our findings suggest that IPF might actively expand ex-vivo and may have a longer shelf life than their mature counterparts. Closer study of IPF may be of critical clinical importance for transfusion practices.

TiO2/SiO2/Fe3O4 (TSF) core-shell nanoparticles with good photocatalytic activity that are capable of fast magnetic separation have been successfully prepared by chemical coprecipitation and two-step sol-gel process. The as-prepared TSF nanoparticles were calcined at high temperature in order to transform the amorphous titanium dioxide into a photoactive crystalline phase. The calcined nanoparticles are composed of a Fe3O4 core with a strong response to external magnetic fields, a SiO2 intermediary layer, and a TiO2 outshell. Vibration sample magnetometer (VSM) analysis confirms the superparamagnetism of calcined nanoparticles, which can enhance the recoverable properties of the novel photocatalyst. When the TiO2/SiO2/Fe3O4 core-shell nanoparticles are added to the crude oily wastewater, they exhibit high photocatalytic activity in the degradation of crude oily wastewater. The oil concentration could be reduced to lower than 30 ppm within 20 minutes for the case of initial oil concentration less than 350 ppm. It has been found that the TSF nanoparticles could be easily separated from the wastewater and withdrawn by using an external magnetic field. The recovered TSF nanoparticles possess high efficiency in the degradation of crude oily wastewater even after three times successive reuse. The present results indicate that TSF core-shell nanoparticles possess great application perspectives in the degradation of crude oily wastewater.

CDX2, a master transcriptional regulator of intestinal cell differentiation and survival, has been used as a marker to indicate colorectal lineage in adenocarcinomas of unknown origin. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most common causes for adenocarcinomas of unknown origin, but CDX2 expression in pancreatic disease remains unclear. In this study, we systemically and extensively investigated the expression and role of CDX2 in PDAC. We reported that CDX2 expression is weak and heterogeneous is all normal pancreas and chronic pancreatitis. It is largely expressed in epithelial-lining cells of pancreatic ducts including main ducts, inter-lobular ducts, intra-lobular ducts, intercalated ducts and centroacinar cells, but not in acinar cells or islet cells. CDX2 expression is down regulated during the transformation process from PanIN to PDAC. Only one third of PDACs retain some degree of CDX2 expression, and this group of PDACs have reduced median survival time compared to that of CDX2 negative group (308 days vs. 586 days, p = 0.0065). Metastatic PDACs remain similar expression pattern to that of the primary sites. Our study clearly demonstrates CDX2 expression in pancreatic diseases including PDAC, which is practically important when CDX2 is used to establish the primary sites of adenocarcinomas of unknown origin. In addition, our study also provides CDX2 as a prognostic marker for PDAC and implicates an important role of CDX2 in the development of normal pancreas and PDAC.

We aimed to identify a prostate cancer DNA hypermethylation microarray signature (denoted as PHYMA) that differentiates prostate cancer from benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH), high from low-grade and lethal from non-lethal cancers. This is a non-randomized retrospective study in 111 local Asian men (87 prostate cancers and 24 BPH) treated from 1995 to 2009 in our institution. Archival prostate epithelia were laser-capture microdissected and genomic DNA extracted and bisulfite-converted. Samples were profiled using Illumina GoldenGate Methylation microarray, with raw data processed by GenomeStudio. A classification model was generated using support vector machine, consisting of a 55-probe DNA methylation signature of 46 genes. The model was independently validated on an internal testing dataset which yielded cancer detection sensitivity and specificity of 95.3% and 100% respectively, with overall accuracy of 96.4%. Second validation on another independent western cohort yielded 89.8% sensitivity and 66.7% specificity, with overall accuracy of 88.7%. A PHYMA score was developed for each sample based on the state of methylation in the PHYMA signature. Increasing PHYMA score was significantly associated with higher Gleason score and Gleason primary grade. Men with higher PHYMA scores have poorer survival on univariate (p = 0.0038, HR = 3.89) and multivariate analyses when controlled for (i) clinical stage (p = 0.055, HR = 2.57), and (ii) clinical stage and Gleason score (p = 0.043, HR = 2.61). We further performed bisulfite genomic sequencing on 2 relatively unknown genes to demonstrate robustness of the assay results. PHYMA is thus a signature with high sensitivity and specificity for discriminating tumors from BPH, and has a potential role in early detection and in predicting survival.

Targets located at the same distance are easily neglected in most through-wall multiple targets detecting applications which use the single-input single-output (SISO) ultra-wideband (UWB) radar system. In this paper, a novel multiple targets vital signs tracking algorithm for through-wall detection using SISO UWB radar has been proposed. Taking advantage of the high-resolution decomposition of the Variational Mode Decomposition (VMD) based algorithm, the respiration signals of different targets can be decomposed into different sub-signals, and then, we can track the time-varying respiration signals accurately when human targets located in the same distance. Intensive evaluation has been conducted to show the effectiveness of our scheme with a 0.15 m thick concrete brick wall. Constant, piecewise-constant and time-varying vital signs could be separated and tracked successfully with the proposed VMD based algorithm for two targets, even up to three targets. For the multiple targets’ vital signs tracking issues like urban search and rescue missions, our algorithm has superior capability in most detection applications.

Prohormone convertase 1 (PC1) was previously characterized as a partially transmembrane protein in purified chromaffin granules of bovine adrenal medulla1. This was challenged with experiments on transfected PC1 in COS1 cells, a non-endocrine cell line2. To address this issue, we undertook to analyze its extraction properties in vitro and its immunocytochemical localization in situ in AtT20 cells, an endocrine cell line that expresses PC1. Most of the 87 kDa form of PC1 was resistant to carbonate extraction suggesting that it had properties of a transmembrane protein. Under semi-permeabilized conditions whereby only the plasma membrane was permeabilized, the carboxy-terminus of PC1 was specifically immunostained whereas the amino-terminus was not. These results indicate that the amino-terminus of PC1 was within the lumen of the Golgi and granules, and some of the C-terminus was exposed to the cytosol. Thus, endogenous PC1 can assume a transmembrane orientation in situ in AtT20 cells.

Music therapy can help social workers deal with negative behaviors and symptoms of dementia in older adults without drugs or physical restraints, thereby improving the quality of care. This study tested the effectiveness of music therapy activities for improving agitated behavior in older adults with dementia living in long-term care institutions. The study was quasi-experimental. Eighty older adults were recruited from two nursing homes. A purposive sampling strategy was used to select subjects aged 65 years and above with dementia and agitated behavioral tendencies residing in nursing homes. The music therapy program comprised 90 minute sessions 3 times a week for two months. The program evaluation focused on one criterion: the agitated behavior of participants at the beginning and end of the music theory program, which was measured using a structured scale. Ultimately, the music therapy program showed promise for improving agitated behavior in older adults with dementia living in nursing homes. Incorporating music therapy activities into social work may help make long-term care more diverse and innovative.